


A Little Sacrifice

by ArthurtheGatekeeper



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Being Essi Daven, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, POV First Person, implied Yennefer and Geralt, let me hurt you, so what if a little sacrifice happened in netflix canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26700394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArthurtheGatekeeper/pseuds/ArthurtheGatekeeper
Summary: Let's go to the coast. You were happy there once Geralt. Remember? We met my little sister, Essi Daven there and you two fell in love.Let's go to the coast where I was reminded that love requires sacrifice. And more often than not it seems i'm the one paying the price.
Relationships: Essi Daven & Jaskier | Dandelion, Essi Daven/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 19
Kudos: 64





	A Little Sacrifice

Let’s go to the coast Geralt.

Let’s run away for a little while.

Lets go to the coast where we met Essi Daven, my little sister, Poppet all those years ago.

Where i collected sea shells while you searched for a monster so I could give her a pearl for her birthday- since neither of us had the money to buy her anything. 

Where I fell into the water and you dived in after me and they attacked us and I screamed at you to grab my hand. And I pulled you from it after you’d scream at me to run. To leave you to die while I escaped. As I’d told you back in Dol Blathana that I never would.

Let’s go to the coast Geralt. To the coast, where you fell in love with my little sister and for a few moments you forgot about Yennefer and how she’d hurt you. How she always hurts you. Where you fell in love and for a few blissful moments were free. Were happy.

It’s hard to remember the last time you were happy. 

Let’s go to the coast where I dropped that beautiful blue seashell on Poppet’s lap- but it stank to high heaven so I said it was from you- and you two found a little pearl inside. She made a necklace out of it. She never took it off.

I buried her with that pearl you know? In forest outside Vizima after the outbreak of smallpox killed her. I carried her from the city in my arms as they cremated bodies around us. 

She loved that pearl. Loved you. Asked to be buried with it along with her lute.

I didn’t tell her how I wanted to be buried. Haven’t told you that either. There’s no point. I know I’ll bury you as I buried her. As I’ve buried everyone i love.

I didn’t tell you that story. I’m not going to. I assume- if you remember Poppet at all- you think it luck or fate that keeps you apart. The continent is big after all. 

I let you think that Geralt. Because you don’t need any more loss in your life.

Let’s go to the coast where I yelled at you both to stop making doe eyes and being ridiculous and _Talk_ like the adults you were. And then, once you were done talking, to go and bone also like the adults you were. And you did.

And I watched you two fall asleep in each others arms and I wrote a song that night about a Witcher and a Bard who fell in love on the coast. About how beautiful and powerful it was and how nothing. Nothing. Not even death was able to destroy their love and part them.

I could have sang that song. In the years before her death. It would have moved the audience. No one would have believed it was true- but that isn’t the point of ballads. Ballads are meant to move- not be believed.

But I didn’t. Not to anyone. Even if you had met again I wouldn’t have played it.

Because I realized it wasn’t really about you and Essi. And then she was dead and I really couldn’t play it. But I sing it to myself sometimes. So I can pretend that Poppet got her happy ever after. That you got _you_ got your happy ever after.

Let’s go to the coast Geralt. You found happiness there once. 

It will remind me of Essi. Of my little sister that I buried outside Vizima all alone.

But what is love if not making little sacrifices? 

I love you Geralt. I make a little sacrifice every time I don’t tell you that. Because I know you don’t love me that way. That knowing it would be a burden to you. I make a little sacrifice of my heart every time you go back to Yennefer despite how she has hurt you.

Stay with _me_. Choose _me_.

Hell Choose Poppet. I wish you could choose Poppet. Little Eye with her shinning cornflower blue eyes and wonderful voice and sharp tongue and sharper mind.

I miss Poppet. I miss my little sister. I hate that you have never asked after her and I’ve never the chance to tell you she died. To cry with my best friend over her. With someone who loved her at least a fraction of as much as I did.

But what is love if not making little sacrifices right? Like the mermaid we met there who gave her legs to be with the man she loved.

In my version she gives up her voice in exchange to be with him. A voice that would have shouted “I love you!” until she turned to foam because he didn’t know she loved him back. Whether or not he actually did.

Don’t think about that too much Geralt. I know you’ve no interest in metaphor or symbolism. That stories are only as good as their rhymes or the truth they tell.

I say _Grab my hand_ or _You’ll have to kill me to because I will not leave him_ or _Let’s go to the coast_. I write ballads that I never perform for anyone. I try to sow you up with fishing line until Essi yells at us and does it right and I peel the carrots and potatoes for dinner.

And even when we share a bed I sleep alone.

But what is love if not a little sacrifice?

Let’s go to the coast. Get away for a while. Figure out what pleases you.

Essi pleased you once. Maybe I could too.

Or. Or you could go to Yennefer again.

I suppose that’s fine too.

**Author's Note:**

> Are you in pain? Cause I was in pain after I read the short story "A little sacrifice" and then I thought. Fuck he asks Geralt to go to the coast with him. What if A little sacrifice has happened in netflix canon? And I hurt worse so. Here you go.
> 
> Sorry theirs no comfort. Dandelion doesn't get comfort. It breaks my fucking heart. So I attempted to break yours.


End file.
